I have a front row seat to the drive, ingenuity, and passion of tech entrepreneurs and dedicated teams at Startup Edmonton. It’s hard to share your idea with the world, and harder yet to build a tech-enabled product that can scale to customers around the globe. We work to support ambitious Edmontonians as they tackle these challenges and support them through programs, access to talent and capital, coworking space, and a supportive community.

In today’s State of the City address, Mayor Iveson highlighted his commitment to the technology and innovation community and company growth. He signaled four pipelines to help build momentum for startup and scaling companies: export of products, services and know-how; a steady flow of local investment; skilled talent developed here and attracted from around the world; collaborative innovation by the municipality, tech community, and traditional industries; and more opportunities for connection between tech entrepreneurs, organizations, mentors, investors, community, and students.

Over the past five years, we worked to lay the foundation to support tech-enabled companies start and grow from Edmonton. The opportunities outlined by the Mayor today are exciting and we look forward to more people joining us to launch their ideas into the world!

Here are three ways you can get involved, today!

· Be the first customer for a startup company! Traction is the name of the game in early-stage companies. The sooner you can prove a customer is willing to pay for your solution, the more attractive you are to investors, the easier it is to recruit more customers, and the faster you can scale your product.

· Come out and meet the community! Edmonton Startup Week, October 15 - 19, is an excellent way to check out top tech trends, like artificial intelligence, and connect with founders, team members, and business leaders.

· If you have an idea, don’t be shy! If you have an idea for a tech product or know someone with an idea, please send them our way. It can take as little as three-hours of brainstorming to get to your first business model.

The momentum of support building around technology and innovation in our city is encouraging. Startup Edmonton is poised to harness this excitement into tangible benefits for our growing technology and innovation community.

Looking for some more entrepreneurship inspiration? Head on over to our Member Company page to catch up with teams that are solving problems for customers around the world, from capturing massive amounts of drug data for researchers to helping bandmates collaborate on new music. Scalable tech products apply to any industry, and the breadth and depth of our member and alumni companies is a testament to their creativity.